Additional Resources

Global Surgery Data Collection and Reporting for Post-Operative Care

In 2017, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a policy, required by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), in which some physicians that provide 10- and 90-day global services would be required to report information on the number of postoperative visits they provide.

Who is required to report post-operative care information?

Practitioners in 9 states, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon and Rhode Island, are required to report data on every post-operative visits furnished during the global period of specified procedures.

While this policy only affects practitioners in the above listed states who belong to groups of 10 practitioners or more. ASPS encourages all surgeons to report each post-operative visit to CMS.

What will need to be reported? And how will it be reported?

Practitioners who meet requirements and perform any of the surgical CPT codes that have been identified will report post-operative visits using CPT code 99024, (Post-operative follow-up visit, normally included in the surgical package, to indicate that an evaluation and management service was performed during a post-operative period for a reason(s) related to the original procedure) for each postoperative evaluation and management visit they provide within the global period. This includes every facility visit (inpatient, outpatient, observation) as well as office visits.

The specified procedures have been identified as those that are furnished by more than 100 practitioners and are either nationally furnished more than 10,000 times annually or have more than $10 million in annual allowed charges. Please see below for a complete list of procedures that must follow the new guidelines.

Why is it important to participate?

This is a mandatory policy for some surgeons. Currently there is no penalty for not participating, however, there is the possibility of future payments being withheld if data is not routinely shared. It is important to report because incomplete reporting means incomplete and inaccurate data and can result in reduced global codes and values.